1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical device for use within a computer, and particularly to an electrical extender having two opposite connection ports adapted to be respectively coupled to a connector mounted on a backplane and a connector mounted on a hard drive for cooperatively electrically connecting the hard drive to the backplane.
2. Description of Related Art
An organization, known as a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA) Working Group, releases a specification to define the Serial ATA interface and the corresponding connectors. This interface is used to connect storage devices such as hard disk, DVD, and CD-RW drives to the-PC motherboard. The specification defines a male and a female electrical connectors respectively connected to the storage device and mounted on a backplane. Such connectors can be referred to the specification released by the Serial ATA Working Group on Aug. 29, 2001, entitled xe2x80x9cSerial ATA: High Speed Serialized AT Attachmentxe2x80x9d, which is submitted herewith by Information Disclosure Statement (IDS). U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,122 also discloses a female Serial ATA connector.
Generally, a female Serial ATA connector is mounted on a backplane in the computer and a male Serial ATA connector is mounted to a hard disk which is intended to be attached to the backplane for establishing signal transmission between the hard disk and the backplane through the interconnection of such female and male connectors. Ideally, the relative positions of the backplane and the hard drive should be precisely arranged so that the hard drive can be properly and correctly connected to the backplane through such pair of male and female connectors. However, it is difficult for un-mated male Serial ATA connector of the hard drive and female Serial ATA connector of the backplane to reach their final predetermined secured positions. Accordingly, an extender interconnecting the Serial ATA male and female connectors is desired for compensation.
Hence, an extender interconnecting the male and female connectors is desired to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an extender adapted to mate a male Serial ATA connector and a female Serial ATA connector, respectively, on two opposite sides thereof, so as to accomplish the electrical connection between a hard drive and a backplane through the extender.
In order to achieve the object set forth, an extender in accordance with the present invention includes a female portion and a male portion adapted to be back-to-back assembled. The female portion comprises a first housing defining two slots and a plurality of first contacts. A plurality of first passageways is defined in the first housing and communicates with the slots. The first contacts are retained in the first passageways. The male portion comprises a second housing having a pair of tongues and a plurality of second contacts. The tongues define a plurality of positioning slits for receiving the second contacts. Each of the first contacts is aligned and cooperated with a corresponding second contact to form a transmission path. A pair of latch devices is provided on each opposite end of the female portion and male potion for fastening each other.